Exceptional molecular preservation in the Late Jurassic Claudia Palaeo-geothermal field

TEECE, B.; GUIDO, D.; CAMPBELL, K.; VAN KRANENDONK, M.; GALAR, A.; GEORGE, S.

Conferencia; AbSciCon - Origins and Exploration: From Stars to Cells; 2022

Distal sinter apron yields exceptional preservation of indigenous OM compared to more proximal facies. Specifically, OM extracted from the distal apron records highly abundant,thermally immature biomarkers, consistent with the lower overall fluid temperatures of distal hot spring facies. In contrast, homohopane ratios show that the OM of the proximal apron is of mixed thermal maturity and is in low abundance. Moreover, despite indications of the presence of some oil-window-matured aromatic compounds, the Ts/(Ts+Tm) hopane ratio and steraneratios confirm that the distal apron samples are extremely thermally immature, and thereby constitute an area of exceptional molecular preservation.